Ismaël Kouassi, Côte d’Ivoire Director for PawaPay : “We are a facilitator, connecting businesses to Africa’s mobile money economy.”
Ismaël Kouassi, the Côte d’Ivoire Director for PawaPay, a cutting-edge fintech specializing in African mobile money solutions, highlighted in a recent interview that the company positions itself as a crucial technological enabler. PawaPay empowers businesses, banks, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access various payment ecosystems through a single, streamlined integration. Kouassi emphasized that their core mission involves simplifying payments, facilitating disbursements, meticulously tracking transactions, and efficiently managing financial flows.
According to Kouassi, Côte d’Ivoire and the broader West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) stand out as some of Africa’s most vibrant regions for digital payments today. This dynamism is fueled by the widespread adoption of mobile money, robust modern infrastructure such as the BCEAO’s interoperable PI-SPI platform, and a rapidly evolving financial landscape. The region is emerging as a significant hub for fintech innovators. Ismaël Kouassi further projected that the synergy between traditional banking services and mobile money will be a primary engine for financial growth in the coming years, particularly benefiting SMEs. These businesses will gain access to a wider array of financial services through enhanced integration of digital flows. With this vision, PawaPay is committed to continuously dismantling technical and operational obstacles, thereby accelerating trade, investment, and economic integration across the entire African continent.
PawaPay describes itself as a payment infrastructure company providing unique integration, a unified dashboard, and consolidated treasury services across approximately 20 African nations. What exactly does this infrastructure role entail? Where do your responsibilities end, and those of mobile money operators, banks, payment processors, or e-wallet issuers begin?
The simplest way to grasp PawaPay’s function is to view us as a conduit, enabling businesses to seamlessly tap into Africa’s burgeoning mobile money economy. Mobile money has become one of the continent’s most vital financial infrastructures. Data from the GSMA indicates that global mobile money services processed over $2 trillion in 2025, a staggering doubling of transaction value in just four years. This underscores that mobile money is no longer an emerging payment method but a fundamental pillar of African commerce.
Our core responsibility is to grant businesses access to this expansive ecosystem through a single, efficient integration.
This could involve empowering a money transfer firm to send funds directly to mobile wallets, assisting an internet service provider in collecting subscriptions, supporting an urban mobility platform in paying its drivers, or enabling digital companies to serve customers across multiple African markets. We deliver the technological layer that orchestrates payments, manages disbursements, monitors transactions, oversees financial flows, and handles reconciliation. Mobile money operators retain accountability for customer accounts and the issuance of electronic money. Banks continue to provide core banking services and fund custody. Regulators ensure market integrity and oversight. While mobile money serves as a crucial infrastructure powering African commerce, our mission is to ensure businesses can easily access it across various markets.
PawaPay currently operates in 20 African markets. What strategic thinking guided your initial market entries, and what criteria steer your expansion today?
From our inception, we strategically focused on markets where mobile money already played a significant role in daily economic activity. Africa has pioneered some of the world’s most successful digital payment ecosystems, and we aimed to establish our presence where businesses were actively seeking to engage with their customers via mobile money. Today, three key factors continue to drive our growth. First is client demand. We closely monitor the markets our clients are expanding into and where they wish to reach new consumers. Companies such as Bolt, Yango, LemFi, or GiveDirectly operate across multiple countries, and their evolving needs naturally influence our priorities. The second factor is the robustness of the local payment ecosystem.
We prioritize markets where mobile money, digital commerce, and financial services are increasingly integral to the economy.
Lastly, we place significant emphasis on the potential for long-term partnerships. Infrastructure development is a multi-year endeavor. Building trusted relationships with operators, financial institutions, and other ecosystem players is paramount. Our objective isn’t merely to add more countries but to build a cohesive coverage that empowers businesses to operate effectively across the continent.
Côte d’Ivoire, and the UEMOA region more broadly, are frequently cited as a future regional hub for fintech and finance. What makes this area particularly attractive for a pan-African payment infrastructure provider? What elements truly differentiate it?
I would assert that UEMOA is already one of Africa’s most critical regions for digital payments. West Africa processed nearly $500 billion in mobile money transactions in 2025 and boasts over 517 million registered mobile money accounts, making it the most active region globally in terms of operational services.
Within this dynamic landscape, Côte d’Ivoire holds a strategic position. It stands as UEMOA’s leading economy, a major regional financial center, and a market featuring more than 28 million registered mobile money accounts, with over 13 million actively used.
What is particularly noteworthy is the deliberate investment made in regional financial infrastructures. The interoperable instant payment platform (PI-SPI) implemented by the BCEAO serves as an excellent illustration. By April 2026, over 80 institutions, including banks, electronic money institutions, and microfinance organizations, were already connected. For both businesses and financial institutions, the quality of payment infrastructure directly dictates their capacity to participate in economic activity. For a pan-African infrastructure provider like PawaPay, this presents a considerable advantage. A regulatory decision or a partnership forged in Côte d’Ivoire can potentially ripple across several countries in the region. The depth of the banking sector, the high adoption rate of mobile money, the vibrant entrepreneurial spirit, and Abidjan’s geographical prominence as a regional economic nucleus also contribute significantly to its appeal.
When an Francophone African bank collaborates with a payment infrastructure like PawaPay, what actual benefits does it observe beyond technical access to mobile payments? How might this impact client acquisition, service costs, liquidity management, compliance, fraud prevention, or the offerings tailored for SMEs?
The primary point to emphasize is the complementary nature of banks and payment infrastructures. Banks remain central to settlement, liquidity management, regulatory compliance, client relationships, and comprehensive financial services. This fundamental role remains unchanged. What is evolving, however, is the increasing prominence of mobile money in daily economic life.
According to the GSMA, transfers between bank accounts and mobile wallets reached approximately $167 billion in 2025.
Flows in the opposite direction are achieving comparable levels. Therefore, the future is not a choice between “bank or mobile money,” but rather “bank and mobile money.” An infrastructure provider like PawaPay grants banks access to multiple payment ecosystems through a single connection. This enhances visibility over financial flows, simplifies treasury management, and broadens their capacity to serve their clientele. This is particularly relevant for SMEs, many of whom already collect payments via mobile money. Banks that can integrate these digital flows into their service offerings can deliver greater value to these growing businesses.
How do you foresee the evolution of the mobile money ecosystem over the next five years? Will growth primarily be driven by merchant payments, mass disbursements, government payments, e-commerce, B2B transactions, savings and credit, or cross-border usage?
One of the most intriguing phenomena currently is that growth is simultaneously originating from multiple segments. Consumer adoption is already well-established in numerous markets.
In UEMOA, financial inclusion rates surged from 56% to 71% between 2018 and 2022, largely attributable to digital financial services and mobile money.
Merchant payments perfectly illustrate this dynamic. Studies indicate their volume increased by over 40% in 2025, positioning this segment as one of the ecosystem’s most vibrant. This trend reflects a deeper reality: mobile money is progressively becoming an everyday tool for commerce. We observe this across digital services, internet subscriptions, transportation, education, retail, and numerous other sectors. Cross-border payments will also continue to expand as African businesses increasingly operate across multiple markets. Mobile money is no longer a niche product; it has transformed into an essential infrastructure for African commerce.
The mutual recognition agreement for licenses between Ghana and Rwanda was perceived as a significant indicator for African cross-border payments. What does it reveal, in your opinion, about the progression of regulatory cooperation among African jurisdictions? Is this a precedent that can be replicated on a large scale, or an advancement still highly specific to certain conditions?
I believe it reflects a fundamental trend that is becoming increasingly apparent across the continent. African regulators acknowledge that trade, investment, and the digital economy are becoming more interconnected, and that regulatory cooperation can bolster economic growth while maintaining necessary safeguards. The Ghana-Rwanda agreement is one such example. The harmonized framework within UEMOA provides another. While the approaches differ, they convey the same reality: economic activity now extends far beyond national borders. A single, universally applicable model will likely not emerge, but the growing willingness to collaborate, share experiences, and construct common frameworks represents a very positive development for African trade and investment. Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to support the expansion of cross-border payments.
Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to support the expansion of cross-border payments.
Many stakeholders envision a future fluid and interoperable African payment network. What, in your view, is the realistic path toward achieving this objective? What prerequisites must be met as a priority?
The encouraging aspect is that the essential foundations are already in place. Mobile money adoption is robust. Financial institutions continue to invest in digital infrastructure. Initiatives like PAPSS, PI-SPI, and several regional interoperability programs demonstrate a shared ambition to strengthen connectivity. The next critical step involves enhanced collaboration among operators, banks, infrastructure providers, and regulators. The objective should not solely be to accelerate payments.
The objective must be to foster trade, exchanges, and economic participation across the entire continent.
When businesses can more easily serve customers in multiple countries, when consumers have a broader range of options, and when financial institutions access a larger regional market, the entire ecosystem benefits. However, technology alone will not suffice. It will also be necessary to address issues related to currency management, compliance, fraud prevention, and the governance of payment networks.
What role can infrastructure companies like PawaPay play in supporting the growth of a regional hub such as Côte d’Ivoire? Where can you create the most significant value?
Our role is to alleviate friction. Whenever a business aims to expand into multiple African markets, it encounters considerable technical, regulatory, and operational complexities. An infrastructure provider like PawaPay streamlines this expansion process.
We empower businesses, banks, and fintechs to rapidly access multiple markets through a single, unified platform.
For a regional hub like Côte d’Ivoire, this translates into increased investment, greater innovation, and more businesses capable of operating regionally and even continent-wide. The most substantial value we can generate is accelerating the flow of funds, services, and economic opportunities across Africa. In our view, the next phase of African financial development will not only be digital; it will also be profoundly pan-African.
